Students Take Top Honors in Designs for Safety Competition

Industrial Design majors receive awards for innovative designs

For the third consecutive year, a Montclair State student
won the Grand Prize in the Designs for Safety Competition sponsored by the
World Traffic Safety Symposium. Senior Aviv Butvinik captured the judge’s
attention with his submission, the “Heads Up” Pedestrian Alert System, to take
the top prize. Junior Arielle Cardone won second prize – the second year in a
row a University student has received this honor. Gregory Pein placed fourth in
the prestigious national competition.

The students received their awards at the New York Auto
Show’s World Traffic Safety Symposium held on April 25 at the Jacob Javits
Center in Manhattan.

“This is the fifth year our students have placed in the competition,”
says Industrial Design program director Dr. Denis Feigler. “The reason they
stand out is because their education covers both the theoretical and practical
aspects of product design. The students are committed to developing design
projects that meet professional expectations.”

All Industrial Design majors are encouraged to participate
in this competition. Butvinik, an Industrial Design major from Fair Lawn, New
Jersey, was inspired by a 2013 news story about a family that was killed by a
fast-moving car while crossing the street. “I wanted to create something that
could help prevent this from happening again,” he says. “Cars driving uphill at
night cannot see pedestrians crossing the road up ahead. Likewise, the
pedestrians crossing the road can’t see the cars coming up the hill down below.”

In 2011, 4,432 people were killed in pedestrian motor
vehicle accidents. Butvinik’s “Heads Up” system predicts when a car is going too fast to
stop in time before the intersection. Butvinik’s warning system includes
flashing LED lights at crosswalks and warning beeps to alert pedestrians that
the unseen car is coming in time for them to evacuate the intersection.

Butvinik received $4,000 of the $5,000 prize, with the
remaining $1,000 going to the Industrial Design major. “The best part of
winning is knowing that the company that is sponsoring the Grand Prize now
knows about the system,” he says. “They may even have the money to create it.
That is very exciting!”

Arielle Cardone is no stranger to the winner’s circle. In
2013, she shared the Grand Prize with fellow student Noemi Nagy for a
“protectaRail” design, which provided a protective buffer to guardrails that
minimized the impact of a crash. This year, her winning design was aimed at
eliminating snow and ice on roads to avoid accidents. “I used a mineral called
zeolite, that stores up to four times the amount of heat that water does. When
inlaid in roads, it absorbs heat from outside sources,” she explains. When it
snows, the water from the snow activates the heat release and warms the pavement,
melting snow and ice and clearing the road – and helping to prevent accidents.

For Cardone, the best thing about winning is being rewarded
for her hard work. “Placing in the competition two years in a row is an honor,”
she says. “It has been a very rewarding experience.” As for next year, she
says, “If I think of an idea that I think has good potential, then I will
definitely entertain the thought of entering again.”

Feigler is delighted that the Industrial Design
program has received such valuable industry recognition. “Winning the Grand
Prize one time can be considered a lucky break. Winning it again and placing
second two years running is pretty cool,” he says. “Repeating the pattern for
the third year says we are doing something right! Winning the competition
proves to students that they are receiving the right education for building a
successful design career.”